Kissinger Summer

Since its premiere in 1986, the Kissinger Summer Festival has developed into an internationally renowned music festival thanks to its high artistic standards. It's easy to overlook the fact that the original aim wasn't to provide the world with top-tier musical performances, but rather that economic and political considerations were the primary driving force behind the festival's creation. The former spa town of Kissingen, known as the "World Spa Kissingen," had lost half its hinterland and many cultural connections due to the division of Germany after World War II and its immediate proximity to the Iron Curtain.

The tradition of musical performances had been cut short, but the magnificent halls were still there, crying out for appropriate use. It wasn't until 1984 that the then-mayor of Kissing, Georg Straus, traveled to Bonn with the constituency representative, Eduard Lintner, and a delegation. The enticing phrase was "border zone funding"—subsidies from the Ministry of the Interior and the Foreign Office to strengthen structurally weak communities along the border. For the people of Kissing, the initial priority was filling a gap in hotel occupancy during the summer months. That this would lead to the birth of an internationally renowned festival was something no one could have imagined at the time.